Books With Pictures In Them: Of course they are for Grownups

Everyone loves pictures. Seen the ‘motion pictures’ lately? Watched the telly? Got prints up on your walls? Of course! We crave pictures. Why then the bizarre notion that Books With Pictures In Them are only for little people?

Illustrated books are for GROWNUPS too. And when you buy such a book you get to enjoy the skill and craft of the writer and also of the artist. It’s a two for the price of one sort of purchase when you look at it that way.

In this post I present such books that have made their way into my shelves. Call them what you will: Picture books, Pictorial books, Illustrated Books, Graphic Books, Comics, Managa. There are books where the pictures themselves are almost the whole of the story, and books where the pictures supplement the story.

Octopus and Family by Annabell Lee, also from Odyssey Books, has a lot of fun with octopi, as you can see from my review here, and moreover it is one to hide from your little ones rather than give to them.

Octopus and Family by Annabelle Lee

Now OnlyFreaks Turn Things Into Bones by Steff Green and Bree Roldan is indeed intended for little ones and contains a strong message about bullying. Still, why not enjoy these illustrations yourself as well. More about it in my review here.

The Ashes of Olympus Trilogy by Julian Barr is an example of Books With Some Pictures In Them. The line drawings help create the mood of early times and fear of the gods.

The Way Home, Ashes of Olympus, by Julian Barr, takes place in the dawn of western history, among the early Greeks and peoples of Italy

The Last Hero is a discworld novel collaboration by Paul Kidby with Terry Pratchett. While most of Sir Terry’s novels became a delight to artists to work with after their first publication, only this one as far as I know, that was created as a collaboration.

The Truth is a Cave in The Black Mountains is another collaboration, this one between Neil Gaiman, who began the story as a verbal presentation – to Grownups- and then, with Eddie Campbell, expanded it. Personally, I would not give this to a little person; it’s as dark as the mountain it refers to.

More about Eric by Shaun Tan in a future post. And as for It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In , well this is a story of longing, loss and hope, told through images of teddy bears. It was pondered by Mawson, one of this bright world’s few published writer-bears.

Mark is guardian for Mawson, one of this bright world’s few published bears. He is the writer-bear of It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In